Re-establishing the Routine

I was going to continue with my travelogue but… it’s weekend and usually there’s less people reading my blog during weekends, so I thought maybe I should only do my travelogue on weekdays.

So today will be me telling you about how I’m trying to re-establish my weekend routine…

First thing I did was to get a haircut. You know, I used to have my haircuts at the barber shop near my home in KL. It was the last thing which I insisted on only doing when I make the occasional trip back home, sort of like the last of my [never do this in Penang] bastion.

That all ended some time last year when I realized the uncle was trying to use trickery to shortchange people (including me). You see, my orders were simple: cut off half the length and trim away the sideburns. It used to be a RM 10 and 15 minutes affair. And then some time early last year I began to realize instead of 15 minutes, the time it took to cut my hair increased to almost 30 minutes, and the length of my hair did not reduce much at all. I had to tell him to cut shorter and it took another 15 minutes so my haircuts took almost an hour instead of 15 minutes.

So I began to pay attention and realized that most of his strokes with the pair of scissors were actually cutting at air instead of my hair. I can see why he was doing this. He must have thought by cutting less, we would have to go back to him more frequently and increase his revenue this way. I was pissed off because I thought I was his loyal customer (have been patronizing him since I was a kid). I informed him that I work in Penang and even then I was still loyal to him even though I can only visit him once every 2 or 3 months, so he needs to cut my hair short. A couple times I even had to bribe him with an extra RM 5 just to make him do a proper job.

Well, that didn’t work because I had to deal with the same shit on my subsequent visits. So I thought, fuck it. If he wants to shortchange me, there’s no reason for me to stick with him.

So now I get my haircuts in those Quickcut outlets in Penang. RM 17 but much more straightforward and convenient. Due to my simple requirements, all it takes is 5 strokes with the razor and probably 10 to 15 touch ups with the scissors and we’re done. And the best part is they will vacuum my hair to pull out strands. Within 5 minutes I’m good to go…

OMG why have my haircut story gone so long??

Anyway, after the haircut I went to catch a movie: London Has Fallen. Thankfully it has not been taken down from the cinema. Everyone tells me that this movie is worth watching.

I don’t know. I was actually pretty disappointed with this movie after leaving the cinema. Throughout the movie I kept thinking: “This can’t be it. This cannot be the ultimate bad guy. It’s never that straightforward. The mole must be someone else. The ultimate bad guy must be someone else.”

So I spent the entire movie trying to pinpoint the real mole and the real bad guy boss. Turns out it was really that straightforward. The mole that looked like a mole was really the mole, and the big bad boss that looked like the big bad boss was really the big bad boss. That was kind of… deflating…

And then I went to buy some fruits and headed back home. I have been away for 2 weeks, so I have been doing some cleaning up of the house, laundry, washing the toilet and whatnot. And now I’m blogging. Tonight I will head out to catch some live football action on TV.

In case you are interested, here’s my draft posts for my travelogue. There’s 24 of them left. If I stick to making a post every weekday, it’ll be 5 weeks worth of posts. You can make an estimate and pick the days to come back to read the pieces that most interest you if you don’t want to read them all…

Click to enlarge

I guess this is it. Welcome back to Penang! Welcome back to… work!!! (Unghhhh)

FUCK!!! (Thanks Ciana for sharing the news article with me) I just read news that a suicide bomber has blown up on Istiklal just now, killing at least 5 and injuring dozens of people! Just one day after I write my piece on that street!

I guess I’m extremely lucky to already be back home right now, but still… fuck!! Damn those dumbfucks! Regardless of what your faith is, there’s no way to justify killing innocent civilians to further your cause!

For a moment I thought, maybe I should suspend writing about Istanbul, but you know what? I know what those dumbfucks are angling at. They probably want to strike fear among the Turkish civilians and scare off the tourists, hit the tourism income for the country. By suspending my writing means I am giving in to what those dumbfucks want. So I say, stuff it. I’ll stick to my schedule. Not going to encourage or discourage you to visit Istanbul in the near future. You guys are all capable of making your own decisions anyway.

I will proceed with 2.1 tomorrow…

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Oh yeah, getting a haircut. There used to be a time when I didnt go to any barber store for a long time…perhaps once a year at tops or even less.
These days I have shorter hairs and a beard and this is another frustrating thing as most “hairdresser” ain’t got a clue about beards. So yesterday my eyes nearly popped out when I saw that in the nearby shopping mall a real barber shop only for men is coming, my frustrated time shall end here!!

1) Yes, I’m one of those who seldom read blogs on weekends (it’s kinda like my days off from blogging) but my blog, on the contrary, seems to get the highest hits on weekends! 😀

2) I think your hairdresser does what he does because no-one charges RM10 anymore these days, so he cuts off less in the hope you’ll do it more often. But it’s not right to make you suffer an hour by pretending to cut your hair when, in fact, he’s cutting air! >.< Men's haircuts can be done in 10 mins if you ask me. I have long hair and it takes like 15 mins only.

3) 24 posts left!! That's a lot….that'll go on for the next 6 weeks. Yeah, I read about the suicide bomber. You must be relieved to be back home…was that anywhere near where you were staying?

I have been passing by the London Has Fallen movie poster. My first thought is “what a corny title” hah..hah…
Maybe that’s what my hairdresser does too. She knows I hate having my fringe too long (gets into my eyes) and yet I have to keep telling her to keep cutting shorter.

Same here, same here, everytime I go for hair cut, I say cut three inches, they usually cut lesser, I think they want me to visit them more as my hair grows very fast, tsk tsk. Moreover everytime I go for hair cut, they will pshycho me to do this treatment, that treatment, rebonding etc, very hard sell leh, I don’t like

Yes you are right, I also find out that usually weekends my blog has lesser readers, because most people are busy going out?

That’s why I don’t like to go to the saloon. I’ll stick to barber shop, because there is less room for “pattern”. I went to a saloon once and didn’t enjoy it one bit, because the stylist made it sound like if I didn’t do 10 different treatments, my hair would be permanent disaster and I would go bald by 30.

The truth is, most people read blogs at work. When they are not working over the weekends, they don’t read blogs. Hahaha! 😀

Yes, your haircut story so long. One hour for a standard guy haircut is long. I get my hair cut, layers and all, and it takes me half an hour. But Mun does make a point, though, about keeping his other customers waiting.

I am not much of a movie watcher so I will not comment on the movie.

That incident in Istiklal is scary, and it a close shave for you. So near where you were staying. The world can do without such violence.

I hope I can live to see the day where people use their brains more and do away with resorting to violence. But then, with the current human capacity, I think the only way to achieve this is to be dominated by a dictator. That’s hardly a good idea too. 🙄 …

1. About your haircut. If that guy dilly dally and pretend to cut your hair, making it an hour session instead of just 15 mins, wouldn’t he be keeping his other customers waiting? Unless of course he has no other customers.

How come in Penang, the Quickcut outlets are so expensive? My sister cuts my hair for me and she is just an amateur. Once I went to cut at CF (now Aeon Big), only MYR10 last time and I said cut short and when the girl is done, I said not short enough and asked her to cut more. Then I think she purposely knock the hair clipper on my head a few times so after that I just ask my sister to cut for me.

Since you just want short hair, go buy a hair clipper and just use the two inch guard and just go over your whole head with the hair clipper leaving 2 lnches of hair, job done!

2. Why you give spoiler. Now when I watch London has fallen, I cannot guess who the bad guy is already cos you already wrote here, no hidden bad guys, wysiwyg, haizzzz.

3. Did you mention how much is your siew yuk wanton mee last time?

4. Enjoy your football match watching at ?McD?

5. yes, please continue writing your posts. Life still goes on. Lucky that you are back safely now. It is true, we all can make up our own minds.

I feel so sad living in a world where there are people who feel so oppressed that they need to blow themselves up for a cause. So tomorrow is Sunday, what will you blog about? A day in the life of RG on a typical Sunday?

1. His customers have really been steadily declining since a few years back. I think it is probably related to his pretending 🙄 … Eh, QuickCut is the same price one what, I saw in KL was RM 17 also. Maybe your “once” was “once upon a time, long long ago”? Anyway I never seen girl cut hair at this type of cheap barber shop! I thought you girls would go to those saloons??

2. Hahaha, don’t worry, that is not the picture of the bad guy. Oops!! 😐 … By the way when you wanna watch?? I think they will take it down by this week, has been up for 2 or 3 weeks already, now they only showing odd hours…

3. I don’t remember. Probably not… Not important lah…

4. Somewhere… Doesn’t matter, Arsenal won is all that matters 😉 ..

5. Haha no, I guess when I say I post on weekdays, means Sunday night – Thursday night, then most people can read on Monday – Friday. So tomorrow is 2.1 🙄 …

Not barbers. I went to one kiosk to cut hair inside aeon big in midvalley, something like quickcut but cheaper last year. Once only. Now my sister cuts my hair. The last time I went to a saloon is in 1995. So you just buy a hair clipper and cut your own hair lah.

In my vocab, kiosk shop whatever that does not deal with fancy hair care products is called, the barber. Just cut hair, no bullshit…

No lah, I don’t think I will cut my own hair. I don’t mind paying a barber to do it. If everyone cuts their own hair, barbers would be out of business and jobs soon. Domino effect to crash the economy… What I do mind is being shortchanged. I pay you and you do what you’re supposed to do. That’s only fair…

haha, I usually get my haircut in those quickcut shop coz they are reasonable and dun give us tonnes of bullshit. I tried the one in AEON Big Midvalley last year and is quite satisfied with their service. It has been my usual haircut place since then.